Thermal imaging of a side-by-side comparison of the third-generation iPad and the iPad 2 found Apple's latest tablet running 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) hotter than its predecessor.

Dutch site Tweakers.net (, via Engadget) performed the GLBenchmark test on the two generations of iPads for five minutes to measure a heat difference. Using an infrared camera, the publication discovered that the hottest part of the new iPad was 33.6 degrees Celsius (92.5 Fahrenheit), while the iPad 2 measured 28.3 degrees Celsius (83 Fahrenheit).

Though the new iPad does appear to run warmer than the iPad 2, it should be noted that the temperatures are still well within Apple's specified operating temperature of 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 35 Celsius).

The report went on to speculate that the new GPU is the likely cause for the added heat in the third-generation iPad. The new iPad features an A5X chip with quad-core graphics, presumably from the PowerVR SGX543MP4. A teardown of the tablet late last week revealed a new metal heat spreader affixed on top of the A5X.

Anecdotal evidence from iPad users on the Apple Support Communities forum shows that some users have found the new iPad to be warmer than the previous generation. One discussion had generated nearly 19,000 views and 219 replies as of Monday evening.

Apple said on Monday that it has been "thrilled" with the first weekend of sales for the new iPad. The company announced later that day that a record three million units had been sold over the weekend.

Thousands of customers lined up to purchase the iPad when it went on sale last Friday. In addition to its improved graphics capability, the device has a Retina Display, larger battery and improved camera.

That bottom-left corner (bottom right in photo) definitely gets warm to the touch. The simple solution is to rotate the iPad 180 degrees.

I'm surprised that it's only 10 degrees Fahrenheit. I had never noticed the previous iPads getting warm and this one can get uncomfortable.

apparently for some people using it in the sun for 15-60 minutes causes a overheat

i have not witnessed, but i hope it gets resolved/is not true

On that note, i have to say the one thing that i am happy about Steve leaving Apple (though his death was so very saddening) is that now Apple won't try to make stuff that becomes invisible when its turned sideways...

Hope they can resolve any issues with the "new iPad's battery (i assume that's a large part of the problem)" before the next one...

PC means personal computer.

i have processing issues, mostly trying to get my ideas into speech and text.

apparently for some people using it in the sun for 15-60 minutes causes a overheat

i have not witnessed, but i hope it gets resolved/is not true

I don't think it can until the 4th gen iPad outside of some iOS update that clocks the GPU lower, which I assume they had a razor focus on before its release.

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On that note, i have to say the one thing that i am happy about Steve leaving Apple (though his death was so very saddening) is that now Apple won't try to make stuff that becomes invisible when its turned sideways...

I can't be certain but based on lead times for development I expect Steve would have had in his hands the new iPad with its thick battery. It's a trade off and drastically less battery life was not an option. Note that Apple has has been a leader battery life a this directly affects the user experience. Also note Apple, under Jobs, has released thicker and heavier iPhones in subsequent releases. This is the most drastic but the display is 8x the area of the iPhone. Bottom line: The iPad will get thinner and lighter as the technology permits.

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Hope they can resolve any issues with the "new iPad's battery (i assume that's a large part of the problem)" before the next one...

The issue is with the display requiring a very powerful GPU. As the article mentions they moved the RAM from being on the Apple ASIC (A5 chip) to being external to the package and having its own her sink. That GPU need a low of power to push pixels to that display. That needs a larger battery. I assume this will get somewhat resolved next year but it will probably be a few years before a 25W battery is feasible again.

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I'm surprised by how warm my new iPad gets, but that's only because I never noticed my previous iPad 2 being even warm at all. I'll be curious to see how this all plays out. Do LTE iPads run hotter than wifi iPads (mine is wifi). I think mine runs hotter when in use while charging. It ran the warmest during the very first use as it was charging in the dock and installing gigs and gigs worth of data, music and apps.

That bottom-left corner (bottom right in photo) definitely gets warm to the touch. The simple solution is to rotate the iPad 180 degrees.

I'm surprised that it's only 10 degrees Fahrenheit. I had never noticed the previous iPads getting warm and this one can get uncomfortable.

Is this something that only happens to a small number of units? Mine always seems cool to the touch. Seriously. I usually have the 'smart cover' over the back, but after I use it for a while and close it the back is pretty cool. Like that cold metallic feeling.

You guys are more read than I, but everything I've looked at with the new ARM (been studying their architecture) and even Nvidia chips document that they use less power, by significant amounts than the previous versions. Even with more cores added both on the CPU and GPU. How can this be true if people are saying that the 2 extra graphics cores are making the iPad "heat up"? Getting warmer would mean consuming more power. I think...

I would like to see a FLIR (great company by the way) image of a Tegra 3 being 'bench tested'. If it has both 4 CPU cores and 4 GPU cores, plus a 5th (downscaled) core, then i would imagine it would be burning hot by FLIR standards. Heck, I've read some apple hate comments saying the Tegra 3 has 12 cores and all the bench marks are faked... (totally wrong BTW).

I may be wrong, but I don't believe it's the new processor. I love reading your thoughts though!

I'm surprised by how warm my new iPad gets, but that's only because I never noticed my previous iPad 2 being even warm at all. I'll be curious to see how this all plays out. Do LTE iPads run hotter than wifi iPads (mine is wifi). I think mine runs hotter when in use while charging. It ran the warmest during the very first use as it was charging in the dock and installing gigs and gigs worth of data, music and apps.

It's certainly warm, but I wouldn't say hot.

I don't think it's LTE. Right now I'm purposely leaving mine on playing Netflix over LTE (4G). It's still cool to the touch on the back. I'll report back! :o)

I'm just glad that there's no damn fan in the iPad. I hate noisy electronics and computers. I can definitely notice that the new iPad is a little bit warmer during use than the iPad2, but it doesn't bother me because I understand that the extra graphics power is needed to drive that super crazy display. That's also why the battery has been upgraded.

With increased power in the iPad, comes more chips, which generates more heat. I would suspect that designing something as great as the iPad is a fine balancing act, and nobody does that better than Apple.

I don't think it's LTE. Right now I'm purposely leaving mine on playing Netflix over LTE (4G). It's still cool to the touch on the back. I'll report back! :o)

O.K. 45 min of streaming LTE(4G) and the back of mine is still 'cool to the touch' so to speak. It's not hot at all. It not even WARM. I left it 'back' down on a room temperature desk, with the smart cover under it (it's leather, which holds heat well). After a 44min. show, it was metallic cold to the touch. On every corner!

I'm starting to think that either I'm lucky, or the heat thing is just troll stuff. I thought that at first until I had seen this article from AI. Is AI feeding off troll bait? It just doesn't make sense.

I always found the iPad 2 to feel cold in my hands, especially at night so the new iPad actually being a bit warmer is a good thing. No issues with overheating of any products for me as the climate here is ideal for electronics. I live in Scotland.

O.K. 45 min of streaming LTE(4G) and the back of mine is still 'cool to the touch' so to speak. It's not hot at all. It not even WARM. I left it 'back' down on a room temperature desk, with the smart cover under it (it's leather, which holds heat well). After a 44min. show, it was metallic cold to the touch. On every corner!

I'm starting to think that either I'm lucky, or the heat thing is just troll stuff. I thought that at first until I had seen this article from AI. Is AI feeding off troll bait? It just doesn't make sense.

You're doing it wrong. Forget about LTE.

I would suspect that these two huge GPU's have something to do with it.

I would suspect that these two huge GPU's have something to do with it.

So why then isn't the Tegra 3, burning people's finger prints off? 4 "Huge" GPU's plus I would guess 4 "Huge" CPU's, but wait, there's a fifth... oh, and if you look at other blogs, I guess it has 12 cores.

Not just Americans. At least Americans own* it while Britons have some wonky usage where they use Fahrenheit in the Summer to exaggerate the temperature.

It is rather odd that the since France started metrication in the late 1700s that the nearly all the world has adopted it except, inarguably, the most powerful nation on the planet. That seems rather odd to me but if the UK can't get on board and they are part of the EU would chance do 350 million Staunch Americans have.

I remember being in grade school being told that I need to learn the metric system because it will be standard in a couple years. I later found out this has been told longer before I was in school and long after I was in school. I'm sure it's being told to kids today.

PS: i used Fahrenheit because that is the 10 degrees noted in the article, though oddly omitted from the title.

* Own, as in make use of it fully, not a pronouncement that we invented it. That title goes to geman physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit.

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So why then isn't the Tegra 3, burning people's finger prints off? 4 "Huge" GPU's plus I would guess 4 "Huge" CPU's, but wait, there's a fifth... oh, and if you look at other blogs, I guess it has 12 cores.

What model are you using to compare them? The results from the Tegra 3 showed it was mostly inline with the iPad 2's GPU performance. Are you just looking at cores?

Note that Apple's A5X is about 4x the area of the Tegra 3 which includes RAM on the package. I think you are seriously under estimating what is required to fun this display.

So why then isn't the Tegra 3, burning people's finger prints off? 4 "Huge" GPU's plus I would guess 4 "Huge" CPU's, but wait, there's a fifth... oh, and if you look at other blogs, I guess it has 12 cores.

An Android tablet could have 48 cores, and it would still suck beyond all belief. What does the amount of cores have to do with anything?

Didn't the iPad beat the Tegra 3 in certain benchmarks? DIdn't the iPad 2 beat the Tegra 3 in certain benchmarks too? I don't know how the Tegra runs temperature wise, but if it runs cooler, then maybe they should jack up the speed somewhat, because it blows.

Why people are always trying to make things up when it comes to Apple?

The test with GLBenchmark is basically stressing the GPU so why a hell is it surprising that you measure higher temperatures for a GPU with two times the number of cores. A5 and A5X are both built in 45 nanometers so it's just physics that the A5X GPU runs hotter. What's surprising? It is of course designed to sustain higher temperatures and you make sound that the difference is higher by using Fahrenheits instead of Celsius (by the way why can't US just use SI units?). In Celsius it is a mere 5ºC difference. Again given the vastly more GPU resources in the A5X, those are completely predictable results.

Look here, the comparison between A4, A5 and A5X, the GPU inside the A5X is massive. This beast creates heat when you ask it to sing.

Not just Americans. At least Americans own* it while Britons have some wonky usage where they use Fahrenheit in the Summer to exaggerate the temperature.

It is rather odd that the since France started metrication in the late 1700s that the nearly all the world has adopted it except, inarguably, the most powerful nation on the planet. That seems rather odd to me but if the UK can't get on board and they are part of the EU would chance do 350 million Staunch Americans have.

PS: i used Fahrenheit because that is the 10 degrees noted in the article, though oddly omitted from the title.

* Own, as in make use of it fully, not a pronouncement that we invented it. That title goes to geman physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit.

Just to help you out, the last trip I took to England they asked me how many "Stones" I was. I heard it quite often in London, and apparently it's commonly used.

I was making a rhetorical statement about why it shouldn't be, and at the same time asking for a similar demonstration from the competing chip.

As for why I was even asking, if you study the architecture, it thought it involves power reduction for equal tasks. Depending on how deep you read and how much you believe, it goes to 1-16th of the power.

An Android tablet could have 48 cores, and it would still suck beyond all belief. What does the amount of cores have to do with anything?

Didn't the iPad beat the Tegra 3 in certain benchmarks? DIdn't the iPad 2 beat the Tegra 3 in certain benchmarks too? I don't know how the Tegra runs temperature wise, but if it runs cooler, then maybe they should jack up the speed somewhat, because it blows.

I think this discussion started with HEAT generated by the processors. Glad you brought it to this level.

Of course not. This article backs up my experiences with the new iPad.

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Originally Posted by Aizmov

Here's where the benefits of an advanced process would have been necessary. 45nm is so 2009.

Difference architectures don't all migrate at the same time. As seen in the AnandTech article below only now in 2012 will we start seeing mass produced processors built on a smaller lithography. This simply wasn't an option for the iPad unless you wanted to wait until at least the Summer for Apple to get quantity.

I have had a new iPad since launch day. The only time it has felt warm is when charging from the wall. In normal usage or when charging from USB it feels like cool metal to the touch. That said, I have not been pushing the GPU.

Edit: and it's not just a little bit warm when plugged in to the wall, but noticeably so.

So why then isn't the Tegra 3, burning people's finger prints off? 4 "Huge" GPU's plus I would guess 4 "Huge" CPU's, but wait, there's a fifth... oh, and if you look at other blogs, I guess it has 12 cores.

Tegra 3 features a low performance GPU that is sub iPad2 level. The current iPad is even a bigger beast. Performance brings heat. However, you always have the option of buying Android garbage that runs cooler if that is what matters to you.

Is there any evidence that the type of cover used causes significant additional heat retention? I am about to get my first iPad and I was planning to pick my cover on the basis of ergonomics, protection and looks (in that order). Do I need to add heat retention to that mix?